ArmInfo. Liberalization of the nitrogen fertilizer market in 2018 led to lower prices, the press service of the Ministry of Agriculture of Armenia reported.In particular, according to the source, the subsidization of purchases of nitrogen fertilizers under the program "State support for agricultural farmers to purchase fertilizers at affordable prices" was terminated in early 2018.
As a result, the market was liberalized, new players appeared, thanks to which the price of goods for farmers decreased from 9,215 ladies in 2015 (in a 50 kg bag the subsidy was 3,215 drams) to 7-7,5 thousand drams. The decrease in prices continued this year and the cost of 1 bag decreased by 300-500 drams - to 6,700 drams. At the same time, as noted, an average of 400 kg of fertilizer is required to process 1 ha of area (state assistance per 1 ha was 8 thousand-10 thousand drams).As for the diesel fuel subsidy program, in 2018, out of 317 thousand farms, only 5,220 beneficiaries submitted an application for participation in the program (about 1.6%), as a result, of the estimated 6 million liters, 1.9 million liters were actually allocated. In addition, if last year the cost of diesel fuel under the state assistance program was 440 drams per 1 liter (the state subsidized 60 drams), then this year its market price was 450 drams. To handle 1 hectare of arable land requires 120 liters of diesel fuel.
Recall that in August 2018, former Minister of Agriculture of Armenia Artur Khachatryan stated that Armenia plans to revise the rules of state support for agricultural land users on the acquisition of diesel fuel, seeds and fertilizers. He said that in 2019, it is planned to implement a pilot program, under which the amount previously allocated for subsidies will be provided to the end user. Financial support will be provided for a specific program, and then the farmer will decide from whom and of what quality to acquire diesel fuel, seeds and fertilizers.